Queens Library Mock Caldecott Discussion

Recently Queens Library had its first Mock Caldecott discussion for the year. In the past, we've had our first meeting in June. We review what has come out so far, and we eliminate some possibilities to make our discussions in December and January a little smoother. Here are some of the books we discussed a couple weeks ago (in no particular order):

• The Fabulous Feud of Gilbert and Sullivan by Jonah Winter, illus by Richard Egielski (Arthur Levine)
  
• Tsunami by Kimiko Kajikawa, illus by Ed Young (Philomel)
• Redwoods by Jason Chin (Roaring Brook)
• A Book by Mordecai Gerstein (Roaring Brook)
• Birds by Kevin Henkes, illus by Laura Dronzek (Greenwillow)
• You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?! by Jonah Winter, illus by Andre Carrilho (Schwartz & Wade)
• Higher! Higher! by Leslie Patricelli (Candlewick)
• Hook by Ed Young (Roaring Brook)
• Mermaid Queen by Shana Corey, illus by Edwin Fotheringham (Scholastic)
• Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Genadii Spirin (Marshall Cavendish)
• Cuckoo's Haiku: and Other Birding Poems by Michael Rosen, illus by Stan Fellows (Candlewick)
• All in a Day by Cynthia Rylant, illus by Nikki McClure (Abrams)
• Chicken Little by Rebecca and Ed Emberley (Roaring Brook)
  
• Sparrow Girl by Sara Pennypacker, illus by Yoko Tanaka (Hyperion)
• The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau by Dan Yaccarino (Knopf)
• A Chair for Always by Vera B. Williams (Greenwillow)
  
• Dinothesaurus by Douglas Florian (Beach Lane)
• Curious Garden by Peter Brown (Little, Brown)
• Bird, Butterfly, Eel by James Prosek (S&S)
• One Red Apple by Harriet Ziefert, illus by Karla Gudeon (Blue Apple)
• Down, Down, Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea by Steve Jenkins (Houghton Mifflin)

We had some "easy" ones to get rid of, such as Higher! Higher! and Chicken Little. While we loooooved them for storytime, we agreed that they weren't "Caldecott worthy." Some other books went fairly easy under the category I-Get-What-They-Were-Trying-For-But-It-Wasn't-Entirely-Successful: The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau, You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?!, Down, Down, Down, and The Fabulous Feud of Gilbert and Sullivan. Under the "Whaaa...?!" category, our committee threw in All in a Day and Sparrow Girl.

** At this point, let me remind you that I speak for my whole committee and these "categories" I've made up don't necessarily reflect my own thoughts on these books - I only share our consensus.**

We adored the artwork in Cuckoo's Haiku, but some felt it was better suited to adult Audubon fans than children. Goldilocks was described as inaccessible. And let's just say that A Chair for Always didn't have anyone standing up for it.

There were two books we eliminated but, oh man, was it contentious! One Red Apple and Birds were the most divisive books! One Red Apple is just gorgeous with all kinds of lovely details and textures, but there is a foldout that has all kinds of design problems. Take a look: you'll know

what I'm talking about. And we all agreed that Birds is stunning; however, we got really hung up over the idea that the reader is an active participant throughout the book...and then you get a whammy at the end with the appearance of a girl and suddenly you realize that the story isn't about you and the birds at all but it's about this girl and the birds. The storytelling does a switcheroo and rips the reader right out of the story. It's jarring. Oh, the arguments over all this!

So here is the final group that will move on to our final considerations in

December:

• Tsunami by Kimiko Kajikawa, illus by Ed Young (Philomel)
• Redwoods by Jason Chin (Roaring Brook)
• A Book by Mordecai Gerstein (Roaring Brook)
• Mermaid Queen by Shana Corey, illus by Edwin Fotheringham (Scholastic)
• Curious Garden by Peter Brown (Little, Brown)
• Hook by Ed Young (Roaring Brook)

Is there an illustrator busier than Ed Young these days? I think not...

As many of my readers know, I actually will no longer be working at Queens Library as of July 1st. I have accepted a position with HarperCollins as their School & Library Marketing Manager! So if you're going to ALA in Chicago, be sure to stop by the booth

and say hi. As far as how this changes Pinot and Prose, I really can't say right now. Stay tuned!

Queens Library's 2nd Annual Mock Caldecott Event!

Yesterday Queens Library held its 2nd Annual Mock Caldecott Event! As reported earlier, we discussed 6 books:

Baseball Hour by Bill Thomson

Before John Was a Jazz Giant by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Sean Qualls

Cat and Mouse by Ian Schoenherr

The Dog Who Belonged to No One by Amy Hest, illustrated by Amy Bates
Don't Worry Bear by Greg Foley

Wabi Sabi by Ed Young

And our two Mock Honor books are:

Cat and Mouse by Ian Schoenherr (Greenwillow)

and

Wabi Sabi by Ed Young (Little, Brown)

Our Mock Caldecott Award goes to...

Baseball Hour by Bill Thomson (Marshall Cavendish)

As we all know, this is anybody's year for the award and this was reflected in our voting: it was verrrrrry close. And I am thrilled with the results, as Baseball Hour is action-packed, dramatic, well-executed, and distinguished. It is stunning in its perspectives and it pulses with movement. Lastly, it has wild amounts of kid appeal, which is a nice bonus.

More than 60 librarians came together to discuss the books and vote on them. I was lucky enough to flit and float between the 7 groups and listen to what everyone had to say. The depth of the discussions, as well as the enthusiasm for the event, was thrilling and gave me much-needed inspiration to get through my day-to-day job. We used voting ballots and followed the actual voting criteria of the Caldecott committee (we took it straight from the handbook).

It was a fantastic day, and I look forward to doing it again next year!

2nd Annual Mock Caldecott Event at QL!

It’s that time of year again! Awards Season!

Queens Library is hosting its 2nd Annual Mock Caldecott Event on January 6th for its children’s librarians, and the planning committee has settled on our 6 finalists. Here they are:

-Baseball Hour by Carol Nevius, illus by Bill Thomson (Marshall Cavendish)

-Before John Was a Jazz Giant by Carole Boston Weatherford, illus by Sean Qualls (Holt)

-Cat and Mouse by Ian Schoenherr (Greenwillow)

-The Dog Who Belonged to No One by Amy Hest, illus by Amy Bates (Abrams)

-Don't Worry, Bear by Greg Foley (Viking)

-Wabi Sabi by Mark Reibstein, illus by Ed Young (Little Brown)

And since this isn’t the real thing, we can avoid that tedious veil of secrecy that keeps the actual awards so hush-hush. We discussed about 50 titles altogether during the course of 2008, and I do feel that these were definitely in the Top 10 books.

What I’m surprised about is that neither How I Learned Geography by Uri Shulevitz nor A Kitten Tale by Eric Rohmann made the cut. Personally, I was really hoping that Planting the Trees of Kenya by Claire Nivola would make it – it’s one of my favorites for the year – but it didn’t have a chance against some of the showier titles.

Lastly, for the most part, the committee was in agreement that both House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson, illustrated by Beth Krommes and Wonder Bear by Tao Nyeu left us scratching our heads and saying, “Wha..?” Beautiful, yes. But coherent? Well, that’s debatable. And we did debate it, I assure you.

Stay tuned for the results on Tuesday, January 6th. Let the games begin!